Nick Drake - 'A Treasury' (Universal-Island)
4/5
By: Toby L
It's always easy to be even the slightest bit sceptical over a man's produce that first surfaced to considerable status via an advertising-campaign. But, there are exceptions.
Ladies, gentlemen - exception-one. The late Nick Drake's a revered, acclaimed and lauded force of cultdom. A man whose orchestral, plaintive, ageless produce could be perceived as the pre-cursor to the likes of any solo singer-songwriter type worth their skinny, tortured frame in gold (records) - Rufus, you listening?
'A Treasury' is all too aptly titled. A fifteen-track castaway of azure-tinged tales and winsome melody that span his career, told, written and performed by a man criminally starved of recognition in his own limited lifetime. It features matter that some won't be as familiar with - the recently unearthed, and startling, top-40 hit 'Magic' - yet much that'll have illuminated even the coldest of hearts ('River Man'; 'Pink Moon').
And what sets Drake apart? The lilting homeliness as highlighted on the one-thirty 'Introduction'; the stark, simplistic beauty of a self-explanatory 'Cello Song'; the two parts of 'Hazey Jane' - a composition too beautiful to have remained in one, indulgent whole; and the aching, yearning close of 'From The Morning'.
There's purity, intuition and sanctity to Drake that belies both time and classification. But, satisfying the latter, for now, we'll just call it windswept serenity - sung by one of the true great, almost-lost masters.
Artists in this article: Nick Drake
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